Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Pages ...
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
790 KERGUELEN’S VOYAGE TO THE NORTH.
there are quantities of aquatic fowl. The rivers are full of trout and falmon, and on
the coaft plenty of fifh and whales are caught.
The Greenlanders are fmall of ftature, grofs and fat, they have all of them black
hair, and red and brown countenances ; they are fubject to colds in the head, to the
{curvy, to complaints of the eyesand the breaft. They knew nothing either of phy-
ficians or furgeons, they have priefts, who ferve them as well for philofophers and doc-
tors, for whom they entertain the higheft refpe€t, and whom they frequently confult.
‘The language of the Greenlanders much refembles that of the Efquimaux Indians, who
inhabit North America. ‘heir dreffes are made of birds’ feathers, rein-deer fkins, and
feals fkins fewed together with the guts of them. The Greenlanders have huts for the
winter, and inthe fommer live in tents; their huts are fimilar to thofe of the poor Ice-
landers ; their tents are made of feals’ fkins.) They make but one meal which is at
night. ‘They live upon hares, kids, fea-dogs, different forts of birds, and fifh, and
drink nothing but water. Neither arts nor fciences are to be met with among the
Given landens: ; their trade confifts in lard, whalebone, unicorns’ horns, kid fkins, rein-
deer, fea-dogs, and foxes. ‘They take, in barter, linen and other neceflaries. hefe
people have a fort of religion; they acknowledge a fupreme Being, believe the fouls of
the dead afcend to heaven, and goa hunting there, and that the bodies remain to rot in
the earth ; women are buried alive as foon as they appear to be in a dying {ftate.
The above is all that is moft interefting of the hiftory and manners of the Green-
landers, there remains I fhould {peak of their boats for fifhing, and their manner of
fifhing and navigating. Hunting and fifhing are the only occupations of a Greenlander.
They fifth in their lakes, rivers, and rivulets, but their principal fifhing is in the fea ;
where they catch whales, unicorns, and fea-dogs, cod, and other fifh, which abound
upon the coaft. Their hooks were formerly of bone, but they have fteel hooks now
which the Danes bring them. ‘Their lines are made of {mall fplinters of whalebone,
and their cafting nets of deer’s guts twifted, the harpoon which they ufe for ftriking the
whales, is furnifhed with a forked bone, or a pointed ftone, fome have alfo harpoons
of iron, which they barter for with the Danes giving them oil and greafe in exchange.
As thefe poor people have but little wood and iron, they make ufe of the precaution of
ipiignine to the middle of every harpoon which they throw, ‘the bladder of a fea-dog,
that if the harpoon fhould not ftrike the fifth or detach itfelf from it, it may float on the *
water, and be readily found again, this expedient was known to the fifhermen of the
Atlantic Ocean, for Opien in his Halieuticon fpeaks of it, lib. V. v. 177. ‘ They dart,
fays he, large facks blown up by the breath, and faftened to a cord, immediately at the
fifh, as it is about to plunge.” The arrows which the Greenlanders ufe, are armed as well
either with bone or fharp ftones, and they exercife themfelves in drawing the bow,
from their tendereft infancy. The inhabitants of the new ifland on which M. Bougain-
ville landed lately in the South Sea, not having any iron, make ufe of bone for heading
their arrows, of {cales and fhells i knives, and tharp ftones for felling of trees; thefe
examples fhew that neceffity is the mother of invention, and that induftry is every "where
alike. The canoes or boats, in which the Grcuneee embark for the fifhery, are
made of wood faftened together by traver’es, joined with thin flips of whalebone at dif-
ferent diftances, They are lined with the {kin of feals, well fewed together with ani-
mal fibres inftead of thread, and the joints are well greafed to prevent water from pene-
trating. ‘Thefe canoes are of di ferent fizes. Some are capable of carrying twenty per-
fons with their arms and baggage; anda good quantity of fifh or whales’ blubber.
‘Yhefe eanoes have a fail made of the bowels of the whale, fplit and dried, and fewed
one
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
